Flying Fish Pavilion and the Beautiful Young Girl

　　"The Duke of Jing has arrived! Sir Yu from the Ministry of Rites has arrived! Sir Qi from the Ministry of finance has arrived!"

　　The ministers of the imperial court strolled in one by one after their arrival was announced loud and clear. They wore cheerful looks. They looked like they didn't come to watch a martial arts tournament but to attend a wedding celebration.

　　Well it wasn't surprising since it was the finals of the imperial martial arts tournament after all. Officials who don't hold ranks high enough don't even have the right to get a glimpse of it. It was considered a great honour for officials who could watch it for the first time.

　　The large plaza called the Flying Fish Pavilion was a place designated specifically for the royal family to enjoy martial arts contests and similar events.

　　The t.i.tle "flying fish" is the t.i.tle the founding emperor bequeathed the founder of Liu Shan Men.

　　The founding emperor possessed great martial prowess. Not only did he possess profound martial arts skills, he also had a very heroic aura and thereby managed to bring together many strange men.

　　The three greatest fighters who served him were bestowed the t.i.tles: flying fish, ying long and Qing Lin. The three of them went on to become the three founders, and their reputation was pa.s.sed down to the next generations. The "ultimate three" trio in the imperial court became a thing since their time.

　　It's said that the three of them fought for three days and three nights to determine the number one fighter in the world back then at the flying fish pavilion. But it wasn't until they determined the victor that it got the name flying fish pavilion. Besides determining the strongest fighter of the time, who was Flying Fish, the Qilin Guards, as well as the emperor's entourage and Liu Shan Men were also formed.

　　From then on, the flying fish pavilion which hosted the historic battle became favoured by the royal family. From then on, they chose to host martial arts fights there.

　　The descendants of the founding emperor inherited his pa.s.sion for martial arts. Aside from watching, they wouldn't hesitate to go down into the ring to try their hand at it. It's said that the current emperor also liked stories of people going into the pugilistic world to make a name for themselves and was addicted to stories of ring-fights. Now that he was older, he behaved more stably; however, his interest for ring-fights was just as strong as when he was younger. Every now and then he would ask the warriors of the imperial court or even warriors in the palace to show off their skills at the flying fish pavilion.

　　The emperor sat with his empress, consorts, concubines and princesses on the tower as they watched the fights and enjoyed tea. The twenty or so seats below were reserved for the invited retainers. Next to the emperor was a eunuch who commentated and added to the entertainment.

　　A betting zone was allocated below and the retainers were busy putting down bets for their fighter of choice. While they couldn't gamble with real money, they could at least use objects as gambling chips. Those who were invited into the imperial city to spectate the fights were either high-ranking retainers or relatives of the royal family. Therefore, the bets were big. n.o.body dared to not bet since they were worried they'd ruin the emperor's mood.

　　The emperor managed gambling very well. He didn't allow retainers to dodge gambling debts and he didn't allow the contestants to hold back.

　　Such small martial arts contests were sometimes conducted once a month.

　　I heard the eunuch on duty say that Long Zaitian once fought a Jia level warrior on orders of the emperor. The emperor then quickly took the item that the empress gifted him as a sign of their love, which also happened to be unimaginably valuable. It was an eight white jade bead crown and he used it to bet on Long Zaitian losing. When it got placed on the table, Long Zaitian misunderstood that the emperor was hopeful of him, punched his opponent which infuriated him, and then the entire venue went dead-silent…..

　　It was a gift from the empress, and it was a crown for G.o.d's sake. Would you dare to take it if you won the bet? Fortunately, the empress paid money to buy it back afterwards, otherwise the retainer that won the bet and Long Zaitian would be haunted with fear for the rest of their lives. I heard that the emperor was forbidden from entering the harem palace for seven days afterwards, but that's just hearsay……

　　In any case, it's become a norm here for an audience to sit around spectating while enjoying tea whenever there are people squaring off here. So I guess you could say the flying fish pavilion was the ultimate teahouse upgrade! But it was different today. You could tell with one glance at the grandeur around.